The White House Is Trying to Cancel $810 Million Before Congress Can Stop It

The White House is moving to cancel $810 million in already-approved federal funding — money for refugee assistance, immigrant detainee services, and more — through a maneuver called a "pocket rescission." The trick is timing: federal law gives Congress 45 days to review a proposed rescission before it can take effect, but this one was submitted close enough to the fiscal year's October 1 end that the money simply expires before Congress gets its full window to act.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, called it a "clear violation" of the Impoundment Control Act — the law that's supposed to stop a president from simply refusing to spend money Congress already appropriated. The Government Accountability Office has separately raised legal questions about the maneuver, and lawmakers from both parties have pushed back.

This isn't an isolated move. The Supreme Court recently issued a preliminary — not final — ruling allowing a related pocket rescission of $4.9 billion in foreign aid to continue while the underlying legal question stays unresolved. That means the basic question — can a president just run out the clock on Congress's power of the purse? — is still open, and still being tested in real time.

Notice the pattern: find a procedural gap, time the move to exploit it, and dare Congress and the courts to catch up before the money's already gone.

Sources:

• CNBC: cnbc.com
• NBC News: nbcnews.com
• Time: time.com